Here’s a market update from our friends at Macdonald Realty; Simon Clayton, Kristie Marsden, Jason Low, Sandra Ens, Jason Feinstadt and Jenny Stephanson.

GDP and the Housing Market

On September 30th, Statistics Canada released a report stating that Canada’s GDP ‘stalled’ in July, reversing its June growth of 0.1% to slide back to no growth in July. While these numbers seem small, economists had expected Canada’s GDP to grow by 0.5% and the figures suggest Canada may not bounce back as quickly or fervently as once hoped.

Surprisingly, the sectors that achieved the most gains in July were Eastern Canadian industries such as motor vehicle and parts production, while Western Canadian and big city sectors like mining, construction, and retail trade all faltered. This stands in stark contrast to Canada’s Consumer Confidence Index, which rose once again, and shows that Canadians believe that an economic recovery is at hand.

The real estate market has benefited tremendously from this increase in faith from the Canadian public. Home prices across Canada have risen for 3 straight months and several municipalities are seeing prices above pre-recession levels.

This is important to note. While economics plays a role in housing prices on the supply side, it has to be looked at in lock-step with the demand side, which is to a great extent dictated by a combination of Consumer Confidence and demographics.

So while the economics of housing may be lagging behind, Consumer Confidence and population inflows to Western Canada have, once again, begun pushing prices upwards.

Many factors come into play when it comes to pricing your home and a professional can help you through that process. To find out more, please feel free to contact one of us at the address below.

October 2009 Market Update

If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact us by phone or by clicking on one of the links below:

Simon Clayton 604-764-0711

Kristie Marsden 778-836-4389

Jason Low 604-790-5276

Sandra Ens 604-263-1911

Jenny Stephanson 604-675-6214

Jason Feinstadt 604-263-1911

MacDonald Realty 604-263-1911

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 2:17 pm and is filed under General Info, Real Estate in Vancouver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.